SPCA running out of cat food

ANDY JACKSON

HUNGRY KITTY: North Taranaki spokeswoman Jackie Poles Smith is asking for food donations to feed cats like Garffy, who was found in New Plymouth's CBD last week.

The North Taranaki SPCA is running out of food as it struggles to cope with high numbers of unwanted cats and kittens.
The pet shelter currently has 130 cats and kittens needing homes and almost nothing to feed them.
SPCA spokeswoman Jackie Poles Smith said they have so many cats due to the Indian summer.
"When the weather stays warmer for longer and so cats usually breed more than once," Ms Poles Smith said.
However, the rough economic climate may also have something to do with the number of cats and kittens without homes.
"People seem to think cats are a disposable animal and when the going gets tough they ditch them. That is not the case at all."
Ms Poles Smith said the SPCA had seen a massive influx of unwanted animals that had clearly had families.
"When people move and the cat's not around they just leave it there and think it will be OK but they are domesticated and still need care."
With the food crisis in full swing Ms Poles Smith is keen for donations of cat food from the public.
"We are in desperate need of donations of food. If we do run out then we go out and buy it, but we really need that money for things that can't be donated."
With 130 cats the shelter goes through about 70 cans of food each day.
"We usually see 130 cats in peak times but nowadays it seems like the peak time is all year round," Ms Poles Smith said. "It really makes a huge difference."
A lot of people lose their cats or the cat runs away and the owner either doesn't bother to look for it or doesn't know where to, she said.
"As soon as the animal disappears people should ring us. If they wait too long the animal will go up for adoption and be gone."
Cats will be put down only if they have serious health problems and cannot be adopted.
"We try and save every animal's life," she said.
LUCK FINDS GARFFY
Andy Jackson didn't think he would ever see the family moggie, Garffy, again.
He had even told his kids the ginger number had "gone on holiday".
But yesterday fate played its mysterious hand.
As a photographer for the Taranaki Daily News, Jackson was sent to the SPCA for a story on a food shortage, and instead found his cat, which had been missing for a week.
He said when Jackie Poles Smith from the SPCA brought out a newly arrived cat, Harry, to illustrate the story, alarm bells began ringing when she said he was a bit of a rascal.
"I thought, my God, that's Garffy," Mr Jackson said.

The family was very grateful to the man who found Garffy about four blocks from his Bulteel St home and drove him to the SPCA.
His return made the week of daughter Mela, 13, who had never swallowed the holiday story and had been worried about the moggie's safety.
Last night, Garffy and his brother, Rufus, who had been moping around the house without his mate, were celebrating his return with a dinner of canned salmon.
- Taranaki Daily News